Well, I hope you weren’t too hungover after yesterday’s debate. Here are my thoughts, based on watching the event, reading a few blogs on it, and listening to two podcasts, one central/liberal (NYT’s The Daily) and the other more conservative (The Ben Shapiro Show by The Daily Wire).
- Kamela won the debate. Hands down.
- She did so by massively exceeding expectations. Until now, she had only done one 16 minute interview with CNN. I was under the impression she wasn’t a great speaker, but she did rather well, and you could tell was very well rehearsed
- Harris started badly, but improved a lot as time went on. Trump had an okay to good first 30 minutes, and then completely went off the hill.
- Did this move the needle? Perhaps. I think the main thing will be the Trump team feeling like they missed a massive opportunity. His main objective coming out of the debate would be to paint Harris as
- Radical
- Incompetent
- Unlikable
- A continuation of four more years of the Biden presidency (which isn’t very popular). None of this came to be.
- It was remarkable to see Trump so easily thrown by the traps Harris set. She lured him with some basic bait regarding the size of his crowd, which caused him to unhinge himself live on television.
- Trump would be better off if he spent less time online. The day before the debate, there was a wild rumour floating around that Haitian migrants in an Ohio town were eating cats and geese. None of this is substantiated. If you are terminally online, this is the biggest story since 9/11. If you’re not, you have likely never heard of it. Most people don’t spend 8+ hours a day scrolling X. Thank god.
- The moderators were fairly good. They followed up on Trump four times to fact check him, and zero time for Harris. This, of course, sent the super fans into a tizzy. There were a few times when Harris should have been checked (particularly on abortion), and had she been, it would have taken some venom off the claims of the “lamestream fake news” allegations.
- Regardless, whenever someone blames the refs, or the moderators, for their failures, it is an admission of defeat
- Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris after the debate. A lot of people have disregarded this on the right, claiming it is unlikely many Trump Swifties will switch to Harris. They’re correct. However, a lot of people who might like Harris but wouldn’t have voted (i.e. young people), who are also Tay-Tay fans (i.e. young people) might come out to vote. In a narrow election, that may make all the difference.
What next:
Kamala Harris is already offering a rematch to Donald Trump. If Trump is smart, he will accept it. Saying no is accepting defeat, although I can understand if he wants to go a different network (Fox, although don’t write off an outsider like Rogan or the Daily Wire). Kamala overperformed, and Trump underperformed, and he will need to fix that if he wants to get the win.
Regardless of who wins, I am all in favour in more debates, more often. Not just for Democracy, but for the occassion. Last night, two of our friends came round and we had a delicious lasagne and a tasty bottle of wine. We laughed, caught up, and all round had a good time.
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